Shadow Dancer Screenplay - Raindance Film Festival

73.
COMMANDER (CONT’D)
No paramilitary displays. You’re
not going to bury this man as a
soldier, McVeigh. Not on my
watch.
GERRY
I don’t see any sign of a
military display.
COMMANDER
That’s a colour party.
GERRY
It’s a few grieving men.
COMMANDER
Split them up and have others
carry it, or this is going
nowhere.
GERRY stares at the man. He oozes a visceral, tribal
hatred, like those around him. The funeral of an IRA
Volunteer killed by crown forces is a moment of huge
emotional resonance.
But a confrontation would upset the family. Reluctantly, he
nods to the men to indicate he concedes.
INT. CHURCH - A FEW MINUTES LATER.
The coffin has reached the church, but there is no respite.
GERRY MCVEIGH sits close to the front of the mourners with
COLLETTE beside him.
PRIEST
(from the pulpit)
Whatever message we may wish to
give to the massed ranks of the
crown forces who besiege this
church today, whatever hatred we
may tell ourselves it is out
right to harbour in our hearts, I
must say this to the paramilitary
leaders; why did you send this
young man to his death?
On GERRY as he tries to retain his composure.
PRIEST (CONT’D)
After so many years of
bitterness, what do you hope to
achieve with this daily litany of
death? Peace, as Yeats once told
us, may come dropping slow, but
come it must...